Mental Training: Examples of Mindset

First I would say if you respond to this thread, give yourself a thread motif, a symbolic motif to identify your 'spirit'.

I will make mine CREATIVE WARRIOR

There is a reason for that, which I will get back to later in this thread..

These are used as impetus to drive, inspire, motivate and stay focused, or disciplined to the goal...the goal must be determined. Our goal here is to work on our mindset.

Now this can be applied to anything at all in life, but for the purposes of our forum, we will stay with the safety/rescue mindset.

For me, I know that when I go into a rescue, I am fully engaged with my senses....and the next cognitive thought is observe quickly the problem, look at contributal factors, hazards, things that are dangerous to me and the person(s) I am focused on, I'm already trying to calculate an exit out of this as I'm arriving! Hence I have to fight, I have to go into the fray so to say, I hae to win, i have to champion a cause, and i must be very creative to give my best example of a solution, executed with minimal impact or damage.

There is never any such situation I have ever responded to that did not have impact, there is always some form of contact/injury/stress/fatigue...give one thing up to get another.

And by the way, don't quote other people! Why do you do that! MAKE YOUR OWN QUOTES! Why not! Claim it.

When I was in New Orleans and witnessing so much devastation and emotional and psychological overload, especially when it came to animals, i would out loud tell myself 'You Can Cry Later'. That quote helped me survive those moments, it helped me to not cry, not break down, not react to what I was witnessing, and it was a direct and creative way to not succumb to overload.

Wikipedia: MINDSET

Wikipedia is kinda scary...anybody can write the script, and that does not mean it is accurate nor knowledgeable. And in the purpose of mindset for this description they take it to the warefare element, not necessarily fair!

ShawnMindset

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A mindset, in decision theory and general systems theory, refers to a set of assumptions, methods or notations held by one or more people or groups of people which is so established that it creates a powerful incentive within these people or groups to continue to adopt or accept prior behaviours, choices, or tools. This phenomenon of cognitive bias is also sometimes described as mental inertia, "groupthink", or a "paradigm", and it is often difficult to counteract its effects upon analysis and decision making processes.

A well-known example is the "Cold War mindset" prevalent in both the U.S. and USSR, which included absolute trust in two-player game theory, in the integrity of command chain, in control of nuclear materials, and in the mutual assured destruction of both in the case of war. Although some consider that this mindset usefully served to prevent an attack by either country, the assumptions underlying deterrence theory have made assessments of the efficacy of the Cold War mindset a matter of some controversy.

Most theorists consider that the key responsibility of an embedded power group is to challenge the assumptions which comprise the group's own mindset. According to these commentators, power groups which fail to review or revise their mindsets with sufficient regularity cannot hold power indefinitely, as a single mindset is unlikely to possess the flexibility and adaptability needed to address all future events. For example, the variations in mindset between Democratic Party and Republican Party Presidents in the US may have made that country more able to challenge assumptions than the Kremlin with its more static bureaucracy.
Modern military theory attempts to challenge entrenched mindsets in dealing with asymmetric warfare, terrorism and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. In combination, these threats represent "a revolution in military affairs" and require very rapid adaptation to new threats and circumstances. In this context, the cost of not implementing adaptive mindsets cannot be afforded.

I would suggest you write down 5 key things you are really good at.
Such as:

Writing
Painting
Communication
Mechanics
Design

Then write down the opposte of those 5 you are not so skilled or comfortable with or at.....

Focsus on the later to adjust, and bring those up into your top 10....then on and on and on.........

What are the things you give yourself excuse not to have to deal with them. You cannot say 'oh I'm just not creative, I cannot draw'. Everyone can draw! It is how you decide in your mind your drawing compares to some criticism. That is the difference. So excuse away the criticism, and DRAW! You may not have a Picasso, and that is probably good..LOL, but you will have provided the 'effort' to task yourself. You may not even enjoy it, so draw 10 times, not just once. Draw until you surrender to the fact that yes, you are an artist, your own artist. Not one of the world's scale or scope, but that you accept your creativity and allow it an audience. Enjoy your art! You should first enjoy your own before you could truly appreciate anyone elses'...

Engaging the Phalanx

Shawn, you have many ideas here that I hope to explore further. But here are a few short comments on one thing.

Drawing military analogies always has its limitations esp when one is more concerned with leading a happy positive life rather than world domination. But it still has its place. Consider the ancient Macedonian phalanx formation, 256 men wielding 20ft spears in multiple layers. They would all march in perfect unison, grinding forward no matter what. It was a devastating offensive formation that shredded the opposition. Virtually impregnable to anyone foolish enough to engage head on.

Very difficult to meet force with force head on and prevail. It took a long time for people to realize how to exploit the inherent vulnerability of the formation by feigning frontal collapse while quickly pivoting to engage the unprotected flanks. This still required picking the right terrain to engage the phalanx because you had to have room to manuver. It took a paradigm shift in thinking to render the phalanx obsolete.

[quote=BlueIt took a paradigm shift in thinking to render the phalanx obsolete.[/quote]

That is the same thing as 'advertising'. LOL
(One must always recreate, get ready for the next pitch, think like a client, act like an advertiser).

This is the same thing I was refering to about drawing a tree...

See if someone would have taken a look at what the phalanx proposed as a problem, they could have sought the solution with a creative purposeful mindset....and for this whatever you think you are capable of...instead of the brutal trial and error. Then a countermeasure to take it down from the center and the flanks even in olden times, they could build pyramids, they could do many more things imagineable with less....
....

...
ideally one must move beyond even what that is. Do what you are afraid to do, do what you are incapable of doing...

in that..phalanxes will become nice and tidy little puzzles put up on the shelf. (in your personal collection, completed).

This is the book I am currently reading. I am fascinated by military history, ancient and present.

I am even more fascinated at how human development has not increased with technological increases in our modern times, meaning, our souls are becoming more bankrupt in accordance to our outward gain collectively as a society, a power, and I guess the next step is 'ruin'.

I'm looking for the modern connection to the beginning of our fall from greatness as a nation....

Hence, mindset. LOL

I also am fascinated by our Bill of Rights and our Declaration of Indepedence and our judicial system, in accordance with government relations.....really fascinating how we try to micromanage everything without personal responsiblity and awareness increasing from one generation to the next...

Sparta was a fascinating ancient culture. Perhaps history's most effective warriors. Yet their success on the battlefield came at an enormous price including the requirement of complete allegiance to the state instead of family or anything else.

My guess is you must have on your shelf, Sun Tzu's The Art of War. One of my favorite passages:

Know the enemy and know yourself: in a hundred battles you will never be in peril.

When you are ignorant of the enemy but know yourself, your chances of winning or losing are equal.

If ignorant both of your enemy and of yourself, you are certain in every battle to be in peril.

Yes Sparta, but once again, humans not balanced come undone in time, and it will always be dependent upon the leadership...who is holding it together.....the group concensus and conscience must be led.......

And in time, everything always comes undone, one book after another proves the mettle of the human condition, I look around me in my lifetime and it is the same........the one thing humans choose not to challenge, to conquer remains elusive, and so does the ensuing gifts that come with that rejection...

This I am seeing with my own mind.

And I find it amusing that we run from what is for our best health and for all best health...LOL

I was training with Marines last year, one Staff Sgt in particular really put everything in perspective for me. I am the sole female instructor in these areas I navigate with work, and it is quite a mutually binding experience to work with these warriors...well this Ssgt...he had just come back from battle, and we engaged in a rapport with a director who was there to film...it was a fascinating exchange. I could see the respect of his enemy in his mindset, it permeated his core being. So much in fact that they are the same, one to another, just different poles. I was so moved by him I wrote a story about that interlude, it was quite powerful. I will never forget him.